In one of many memorable episodes of The West Wing, the President's staff sit around the conference table assessing their boss's speech for the forthcoming White House correspondents' dinner, which has been written by a couple of junior staffers. "But Donna," complains Josh. "They forgot to bring the funny."
Some might say the same about last night's annual Sports Personality of the Year bash at the NEC, an event which has become as famous for awarding the prize to the wrong person (in Joe Calzaghe we finally got a deserving winner last night) as it has for the banality of gags on offer by the evenings usual hosts made up of BBC Sports presenters.
"Whoever thought Henman Hill would be over the hill," laughed the hapless Gary Lineker when speaking on Tim Henman's welcome retirement. No one else seemed to laugh. Who writes this stuff? Perhaps the Beeb is playing it safe after Sue Barker's bizarre 'quip to Welsh Rugby coach Mike Ruddock two years ago. "You were 33-1 to win the Six Nations this year. Now you are 16-1. If you can keep Henson out of Church going into it, what are the chances?" she said to the sound of 5 million couch-bound jaws dropping accross the UK.
PS Wasn't it touching to see former Wimbledon goalkeeper Dave Beasant make the trip to be on stage when Sir Bobby Robson picked up the lifetime achievement award? The pair go way back, and have clearly shared a few memories. Beasant, you might remember, was the the third choice (yup, third choice) goalkeeper in Italia 90. He'd have spent most of the campaign sat on his arse in the dug out. Like I said, a few shared memories....
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